The Tantra of Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa

Toh 431
Degé Kangyur, vol. 80 (rgyud ’bum, nga), folios 304.b–343.a.
Translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee
under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha
First published 2016
Current version v 2.28.6 (2021)
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Table of Contents
Summary
Written around the tenth or the eleventh century ᴄᴇ, in the late Mantrayāna period, The Tantra of Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa represents the flowering of the Yoginītantra genre. The tantra offers instructions on how to attain the wisdom state of Buddha Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa through the practice of the four joys. The tantra covers a range of practices and philosophical perspectives of late tantric Buddhism, including the development stage, the completion stage, the use of mantras, and a number of magical rites and rituals. The text is quite unique with its tribute to and apotheosis of women and, in this regard, probably has few parallels anywhere else in world literature. It is written in the spirit of great sincerity and devotion, and it is this very spirit that mitigates, and at the same time empowers, the text’s stark imagery and sometimes shocking practices. This text certainly calls for an open mind.
Acknowledgments
This translation was produced by Dharmachakra Translation Committee under the supervision of Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche. Wiesiek Mical translated the text from the Sanskrit manuscripts, prepared the Sanskrit edition, and wrote the introduction. The translation was then compared against the Tibetan translation found in the Degé Kangyur by James Gentry, and edited by Andreas Doctor.
The Dharmachakra Translation Committee is also indebted to Professor Harunaga Isaacson and Dr. Péter Szántó for their help in obtaining facsimiles of some of the manuscripts, and to Professor Isaacson for making available some of his personal materials.
This translation has been completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
Introduction
Like most Buddhist tantras, the Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇatantra (CMT) is regarded within the Vajrayāna tradition as a divinely revealed text, with its teachings delivered directly from the level of the saṃbhogakāya, that is, the bliss body of Lord Buddha. In such tantras, the saṃbhogakāya deity who delivers the original discourse varies—it could be Avalokiteśvara, Vajrapāṇi, or others. In this case, it is Lord Vajrasattva. The teaching itself takes the form of a dialogue between Vajrasattva and his consort. Lord Vajrasattva here assumes the identity of the deity Acala (Immovable One), which is another name for the deity of the title, Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa (Fierce Great Angry One). His consort is Vajradhātvīśvarī (Goddess of the Vajra Realm).
Introduction
[F.304.b] Oṁ, homage to Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa!
Thus have I heard at one time. Lord Vajrasattva dwelt within the bhaga of the goddess of the Vajra Realm, which is the essence of body, speech, and mind of all tathāgatas. He dwelt there together with many hosts of vajra yogins and yoginīs, namely: White Acala vajra yogin, Yellow Acala vajra yogin, Red Acala vajra yogin, Green Acala vajra yogin, Delusion Vajrī vajra yoginī, Calumny Vajrī vajra yoginī, Passion Vajrī vajra yoginī, and Envy Vajrī vajra yoginī. He dwelt there with trillions of yogins and yoginīs, headed by those just mentioned.
The Maṇḍala
Then the blessed Hatred Vajrī tightly embraced Lord Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa and said:
The lord then said:
Empowerment
Then the goddess said:
The lord then said:
Deity
Then the goddess said:
The lord then said:
Mantra
“Now I will teach the complete collection of mantras.” So saying, the lord entered the absorption called Victory over All Māras, and presented the collection of mantras.
Completion Stage
Then the goddess Prajñāpāramitā embraced the lord tightly, rubbing her lotus against his vajra, and said:
The lord then said:
Revitalizing the Body
Then the goddess said:
The lord said:
Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa’s Nature
The goddess then said:
Meditation
Then the goddess said, “How, O lord, should the wisdom and the means, the woman and the man, cultivate their identification with the deities?”
The lord said:
In Praise of Women
Then the goddess said, “Is it possible, O lord, to attain the level of Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa even without a woman? [F.318.b] Or is it not possible?”
The lord replied, “It is not possible, O goddess.”
The goddess said, “Is it impossible, O lord, because bliss does not arise?”
The lord said:
The Universality of Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa
Then the blessed lady said, “Are you, O lord, with or without passion?”
The blessed lord said:
Mantra Rituals
Then the blessed lady said:
Conduct
The goddess then said:
The lord said:
The Name Acala
Then in that gathering, a vajra yogin called Samantabhadra said this to the Blessed One, “May I ask, O lord, why do we use the names Acala (Immovable), as well as Ekallavīra (Sole Hero) and Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa (Great Fierce Angry One)?”
The Blessed One replied:
Purities
Then the blessed lady, Delusion Vajrī, said, “How can Sole Hero be actualized? Tell me, O supreme lord!” [F.327.a]
The lord then said:
Dependent Origination
Then the Blessed Lady said:
The Blessed One then said:
Increasing the Semen
Then the Blessed Lady said:
Preventing Disease
Then the lord said:
“One should blend the root of castor-oil plant with sour gruel, and rub it on the head. This will cure headache.
“One should fill the ear with lukewarm urine of a goat, cow, or human, with added salt. This will cure ear diseases. Alternatively one should place a dried spider into sesame oil.146
Retention of Semen and Similar Practices
Then the lord said:
“One should make a pill from the root of white butterfly pea with semen, and make a tilak mark on a woman’s forehead. Then she will become enthralled.
“One should smear one’s penis with tubeflower, sweet flag, and honey, and make love to a woman. One will enthrall her.
Mantras and Yantras
Then the goddess requested the lord:
Magical Practices
Then the lord said:
“One should perform all the following rituals with this mantra while visualizing Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa: ‘Oṁ, Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa, you who are a teacher of all magic! Teach all the magical methods to remove obstacles! Hūṁ phaṭ!’225
Controlling Prāṇa
The lord then said:
Signs of Death
Then the lord said:
“If one feels a prickling sensation in one’s navel when pricking the soles of the feet, death will come within three days. If one feels a prickling sensation in one’s eyes when pricking the soles of the feet, it will come within three months. If one feels a prickling sensation in one’s nose when pricking the soles of one’s feet, it will come within three months.
Nature of the Body
Then the lord said:
Deity Practice
Then the goddess said:
The lord then said:
Colophon
Dharmas arise based on causes, and those causes and their cessation the Thus-Gone One has explained. This is the teaching of the Great Ascetic.264
Sanskrit Text
Prologue to the Sanskrit Text
Sigla:
Manuscripts
A – Ekallavīranāmacaṇḍamahāroṣaṇatantram. Royal Asiatic Society, London. Ref.: Cowell 46/31.
B – Ekallavīranāmacaṇḍamahāroṣaṇatantram. National Archives of Nepal, Kathmandu. Ref.: NGMPP 3/687, Reel no. A 994/4.
Gt – Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇatantram. University of Göttingen Library, Göttingen. Ref.: Bandurski Xc 14/43–45.
P – Padmāvatīnāmā Pañjikā by Mahāsukhavajra. National Archives of Nepal, Kathmandu. Ref.: NGMPP 3/502, Reel no. B 31/7.
Published Editions
G – George 1974
Po – Poussin 1897
T – Dpal gtum po khro bo chen po’i rgyud kyi rgyal po dpa’ bo gcig pa zhes bya ba. Toh 431, Degé Kangyur, vol 80 (rgyud ’bum, nga), folios 304b–343a.
Chapter A1
evaṃ mayā śrutam ekasmin samaye bhagavān vajrasattvaḥ sarvatathāgatakāyavākcittahṛdayavajradhātvīśvarībhage vijahāra | anekaiś ca vajrayogiyoginīgaṇaiḥ | tadyathā | śvetācalena vajrayoginā | pītācalena ca vajrayoginā | raktācalena ca vajrayoginā | śyāmācalena ca vajrayoginā | mohavajryā ca vajrayoginyā | piśunavajryā ca vajrayoginyā | rāgavajryā ca vajrayoginyā | īrṣyāvajryā ca vajrayoginyā | evaṃpramukhair yogiyoginīkoṭiniyutaśatasahasraiḥ ||
Chapter A2
Chapter A3
Chapter A4
Chapter A5
athātaḥ sampravakṣyāmi sarvamantrasamuccayam | atha bhagavān sarvamāraparājayaṃ nāma samādhiṃ samāpadyedaṃ mantrasamuccayam āha |
Chapter A6
atha bhagavatī prajñāpāramitā bhagavantaṃ gāḍham āliṅgya padmena vajragharṣaṇaṃ kṛtvā prāha |
Chapter A7
Chapter A8
Chapter A9
Chapter A10
atha bhagavaty āha | kiṃ bhagavan strīvyatirekeṇāpi śakyate sādhayituṃ caṇḍamahāroṣaṇapadam utāho na śakyate |
Chapter A11
Chapter A12
Chapter A13
Chapter A14
atha tasmin parṣadi samantabhadro nāma vajrayogī bhagavantam etad avocat | paripṛcchāmy ahaṃ nātha kim artham acalasaṃjñakam ekallavīrasaṃjñā ca caṇḍamaharoṣaṇeti ca |
Chapter A15
Chapter A16
Chapter A17
Chapter A18
chāgasya gor narasya vā koṣṇamūtraṃ sasaindhavaṃ karṇaṃ pūrayet | karṇaroganāśaḥ | śuṣkamarkaṭatailaṃ vā dadyāt ||
katakaḥ pippalī āmalakī haridrā vacā śiśireṇa vaṭikāṃ kuryāt | tenāñjanāt sarvacakṣūroganāśaḥ | madhupippalyā vāñjayet ||
Chapter A19
śvetāparajitāmūlaṃ śukreṇa vaṭikāṃ kṛtvā tilakena vaśībhavati strī ||
brahmadaṇḍīvacāmadhunā liṅgam uddhṛtya striyaṃ kāmayed | vaśam ānayati ||
daṇḍotpalāmūlaṃ kuṣṭhaṃ tāmbūlena dadyāt, tathā brahmadaṇḍī viḍaṅgaṃ vacā kuṣṭhaṃ nāgakeśaraṃ tāmbūlena dadyāt | vaśībhavati ||
Chapter A20
Chapter A21
atha bhagavān āha | oṁ caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa sarvamāyādarśaka sarvamāyāṃ nidarśaya nirvighne hūṁ phaṭ | anena caṇḍamahāroṣaṇaṃ dhyātvā sarvaṃ kuryāt409 ||
uḍumbarakṣīreṇa karpaṭaṃ mrakṣayitvā nīrandhraṃ, satailasarjarasaṃ piṣṭvā, tasmin prakṣipya, vartiṃ kārayet | udakena dīpajvālanāj jvalati sthiram ||
rātrau varaṭaprastharakhaṇḍadvayaṃ nighṛṣya hūṁkāreṇa vidyucchaṭāṃ darśayati ||
Chapter A22
Chapter A23
atha bhagavān āha |
pādatālukāṃ vidhvā nābhivedhāt trirātreṇa mṛtyuḥ syāt | pādatālukāṃ vidhvā cakṣurvedhān māsatrayeṇa | pādatālukāṃ vidhvā nāsikāvedhena māsatrayeṇa ||
Chapter A24
Chapter A25
Notes
Bibliography
Tibetan Manuscript of the Root Text
dpal gtum po khro bo chen po’i rgyud kyi rgyal po dpa’ bo gcig pa zhes bya ba. Toh 431, Degé Kangyur, vol. 80 (rgyud ’bum, nga), folios 304b–343a.
Sanskrit Manuscripts of the Root Text
Ekallavīranāmacaṇḍamahāroṣaṇatantram. London: Royal Asiatic Society. Ref.: Cowell 46/31.
Ekallavīranāmacaṇḍamahāroṣaṇatantram. Kathmandu: National Archives of Nepal. Ref.: NGMPP 3/687, Reel no. A 994/4.
Ekallavīratantram. Kathmandu: National Archives of Nepal. Ref.: NGMPP 5/170, Reel no. B 31/11.
Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇatantram. Göttingen: University of Göttingen Library. Ref.: Bandurski Xc 14/43–45.
Manuscripts of the Commentary
Mahāsukhavajra, Padmāvatīnāmā Pañjikā. Kathmandu: National Archives of Nepal. Ref.: NGMPP 3/502, Reel no. B 31/7.
Secondary Sources
de la Vallée Poussin, Louis. “The Buddhist ‘Wheel of Life’ from a New Source.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (New Series) 29, no. 3 (July 1897), pp 463–70.
Dharmachakra Translation Committee. The Tantra of Siddhaikavīra (Toh 544). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2016. read.84000.co
Gäng, Peter, trans. Das Tantra des Grausig-Groß-Schreklichen. Berlin: Stechapfel, 1981.
George, Christopher S., trans. and ed. The Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa Tantra, Chapters I–VIII: A Critical Edition and English Translation. New Haven, CT: American Oriental Society, 1974.
Isaacson, Harunaga (2010). The Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇatantra. Handout. Kathmandu: Rangjung Yeshe Institute, February 17, 2010.
——— (2006). Reflections on the Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇatantra. Handout. Kathmandu: Nepal Research Centre, August 25, 2006.
Snellgrove, David. Hevajra Tantra: A Critical Study. London: Oxford University Press, 1959.
Glossary
Absorption
- ting nge ’dzin
- ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན།
- samādhi
State of mental absorption or one-pointed concentration.
Action-accomplishing wisdom
- bya ba grub pa’i ye shes
- བྱ་བ་གྲུབ་པའི་ཡེ་ཤེས།
- kṛtyānuṣṭhānajñāna
One of the five wisdoms corresponding to the tathāgata Amoghasiddhi.
Ajowan
- la phug
- ལ་ཕུག
- yavānī
Trachyspermum ammi.
Akṣobhya
- mi bskyod pa
- མི་བསྐྱོད་པ།
- Akṣobhya
One of the five buddhas; in the system followed in the CMT, he is at the center of the maṇḍala.
Aloe vera
- gzhon nu ma
- གཞོན་ནུ་མ།
- kumārī
Ālokinī
- lta byed ma
- ལྟ་བྱེད་མ།
- Ālokinī
Anurāginī
- rjes su chags ma
- རྗེས་སུ་ཆགས་མ།
- Anurāginī
Apāna
- thur sel
- ཐུར་སེལ།
- apāna
One of the five vital airs, centered in the anus.
Aparājita
- gzhan gyis mi thub pa
- གཞན་གྱིས་མི་ཐུབ་པ།
- Aparājita
Apsaras
- lha’i bu mo
- ལྷའི་བུ་མོ།
- apsaras
Celestial nymph.
Ārambhā
- ram b+hA
- རམ་བྷཱ།
- Ārambhā
Ardhaparyaṅka
- skyil krung phye pa
- སྐྱིལ་ཀྲུང་ཕྱེ་པ།
- ardhaparyaṅka
There are two versions of ardhaparyaṅka posture—one sitting, the other dancing. In the CMT, this term refers to the former.
Arjuna tree
- ardzu na
- ཨརྫུ་ན།
- arjuna
Terminalia arjuna.
Arundhatī
- a ru Na
- ཨ་རུ་ཎ།
- Arundhatī
The name of a star.
Asafetida
- shing kun
- ཤིང་ཀུན།
- hiṅgu
Ferula nartex (Boiss.), Ferula foetida (Regel.)
Āśleṣa
- skag
- སྐག
- āśleṣa
Seventh lunar asterism.
Aśoka tree
- mya ngan med shing
- མྱ་ངན་མེད་ཤིང་།
- aśoka
Saraca indica.
Asura
- lha ma yin
- ལྷ་མ་ཡིན།
- asura
A class of demi-gods.
Avalokiteśvara
- spyan ras gzigs
- སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས།
- Avalokiteśvara
The deified bodhisattva of compassion; one of the original sixteen bodhisattvas.
Avīci Hell
- mnar med pa
- མནར་མེད་པ།
- Avīci
Bandhūka
- ban+d+hu
- བནྡྷུ།
- bandhūka
Pentapetes Phoenicea; bandhūka flower because of its rich red color is a standard of comparison for anything colored red.
Bastard rosewood
- ga ra ka
- ག་ར་ཀ
- gorakṣa
Dalbergia lanceolaria.
Baṭuka
- ba Tu ka
- བ་ཊུ་ཀ
- Baṭuka
This seems to be either another name for Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa, or an epithet referring to him, meaning “youth”.
Bawchan seed
- bA gu tsi
- བཱ་གུ་ཙི།
- vākucī
Psoralea corylifolia , Psoralea plicata, Vernonia anthelmintica.
Bdellium
- gu gul
- གུ་གུལ།
- guggula
Beeswax
- spra tshil
- སྤྲ་ཚིལ།
- madana
- sikthaka
Bel fruit
- bil ba
- བིལ་བ།
- bilva
Aegle marmelos.
Belleric myrobalan
- ba ru ra
- བ་རུ་ར།
- baheḍī
Terminalia bellirica.
Betel
- go la
- གོ་ལ།
- tāmbūla
Piper betle.
Bhaga
- bha ga
- བྷ་ག
- bhaga
In this text, it mostly refers to the female sexual and reproductive organs, however, this terms encompasses several meanings, including “good fortune,” “happiness,” and “majesty”; and forms the root of the word bhagavān (Blessed One).
Bhūmividārī
- bhu mi bi dA rI
- བྷུ་མི་བི་དཱ་རཱི།
- bhūmividārī
Same as bhūmisphoṭa (?); Agaricus campestris (?)
Bhūta
- ’byung po
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- bhūta
A class of spirits.
Bitter cucumber
- iN+Da bAru NI
- ཨིཎྜ་བཱརུ་ཎཱི།
- indravāruṇī
Black earth
- sa nag po
- ས་ནག་པོ།
- kṛṣṇamṛttikā
A type of soil (?)
Black nightshade
- ka ma ci
- ka ma rtsa
- muN+Da ri
- ཀ་མ་ཅི།
- ཀ་མ་རྩ།
- མུཎྜ་རི།
- kāmācī
- kākamācī
- sundarī
Solanum nigrum.
Black pepper
- pho ba ris
- ཕོ་བ་རིས།
- marīca
Piper nigrum.
Black plum
- dzam bu
- ཛམ་བུ།
- jambū
Syzygium cumini.
Blue lotus
- ut+pala
- ཨུཏྤལ།
- utpala
Nymphaea caerulea (?)
Bodhi tree
- a shwad tha
- ཨ་ཤྭད་ཐ།
- aśvattha
Ficus religiosa, the species of fig tree under which the Buddha attained awakening.
Bodhisattva level
- sa
- ས།
- bhūmi
Level of the realization of a bodhisattva; according to the general Mahāyāna, there are ten bodhisattva levels; according to Vajrayāna, thirteen.
Borax
- tsha la
- ཚ་ལ།
- ṭaṅgaṇa
- ṭaṅgaṇakṣāra?
Brahmā
- tshangs pa
- ཚངས་པ།
- Brahmā
One of the three principal Hindu gods.
Brahmaduhitā
- tshangs pa’i bu mo
- ཚངས་པའི་བུ་མོ།
- Brahmaduhitā
Buffalo spinach
- hi la mi ci
- ཧི་ལ་མི་ཅི།
- hilamocī
Enhydra fluctuans.
Butterfly pea
- a pa ra dzi
- a pa ra dzi ta dkar po
- ཨ་པ་ར་ཛི།
- ཨ་པ་ར་ཛི་ཏ་དཀར་པོ།
- aparājitā
- śvetāparajitā
Clitoria ternatea.
Camphor
- ga bur
- ka stu ra
- ག་བུར།
- ཀ་སྟུ་ར།
- karpūra
Cinnamomum camphora.
Cāmuṇḍā
- tsa muN+DA
- ཙ་མུཎྜཱ།
- Cāmuṇḍā
Normally regarded as a Hindu goddess (a form of Durgā), in the CMT she is invoked to protect from theft.
Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa
- gtum po khro bo chen po
- gtum po khro bo
- gtum po
- གཏུམ་པོ་ཁྲོ་བོ་ཆེན་པོ།
- གཏུམ་པོ་ཁྲོ་བོ།
- གཏུམ་པོ།
- Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa
- Caṇḍaroṣa
- Caṇḍa
The chief deity of the CMT.
Candrakāntā
- zla ’od ma
- ཟླ་འོད་མ།
- Candrakāntā
Caryātantra
- sbyod rgyud
- སྦྱོད་རྒྱུད།
- Caryātantra
The second class of tantra in most systems of tantra classification (the other classes being, in the fivefold classification, Kriyātantra, Yogatantra, Yogottaratantra, and Yoganiruttaratantra).
Castor-oil plant
- e raN+Da
- ཨེ་རཎྜ།
- eraṇḍa
Ricinus communis.
Caurī
- tsau ra
- ཙཽ་ར།
- Caurī
Chaff tree
- a pa mar+ga
- ཨ་པ་མརྒ།
- apāmārga
Achyranthes aspera.
Churning method
- srub pa’i sbyor ba
- སྲུབ་པའི་སྦྱོར་བ།
- manthānayoga
A method of generating a deity in visualization (out of male and female sexual fluids mixed in the vagina).
Cibikuṇḍalin
- bi ci kuN+Da li
- བི་ཅི་ཀུཎྜ་ལི།
- Cibikuṇḍalin
God of wealth.
Citrā
- nag pa
- ནག་པ།
- citrā
The twelfth (sometimes the fourteenth) lunar asterism.
Citron
- bI dza pU ra ka
- བཱི་ཛ་པཱུ་ར་ཀ
- bījapūra
Citrus medica.
Citron
- ma tu lung ka
- མ་ཏུ་ལུང་ཀ
- mātulunga
Citrus medica.
Clay from an anthill
- grog mkhar gyi sa
- གྲོག་མཁར་གྱི་ས།
- vālmīkamṛd
Clearing nut
- ka Ta kaM
- ཀ་ཊ་ཀཾ།
- kataka
Strychnos potatorum.
Cluster fig
- u dum bA ra
- ཨུ་དུམ་བཱ་ར།
- uḍumbara
- udumbara
Ficus glomerata.
Coconut
- na ri ke la
- ན་རི་ཀེ་ལ།
- nārikela
- nāḍikela
Collyrium made from the vitriol of copper
- mig sman
- མིག་སྨན།
- rasāñjana
Common milk hedge
- sha ri khaN+Da
- ཤ་རི་ཁཎྜ།
- snuhī
Euphorbia neriifolia.
Costus
- ru rta
- རུ་རྟ།
- kuṣṭha
Saussurea costus.
Country mallow
- ba lA
- bA la
- བ་ལཱ།
- བཱ་ལ།
- balā
Sida cordifolia.
Cowitch
- ka pi kats+tsha
- ཀ་པི་ཀཙྪ།
- kapikacchu
- ātmaguptā
Mucuna pruriens.
Cowrie shell
- ’gron bu
- འགྲོན་བུ།
- kapardaka
Crape jasmine
- ta ga ra
- ཏ་ག་ར།
- tagara
Tabernaemontana coronaria.
Cubeb
- kaM kA laM ko
- ཀཾ་ཀཱ་ལཾ་ཀོ
- kaṅkola
Piper cubeba florence.
Cumin
- zi ra
- ཟི་ར།
- jīraka
Cuminum cyminum.
Cupola
- ’gram
- འགྲམ།
- kapolaka
A cupola covering each of the four gates of the maṇḍala.
Cutch tree
- seng ldeng
- སེང་ལྡེང་།
- khadira
Acacia catechu.
Ḍākinī
- mkha’ ’gro ma
- མཁའ་འགྲོ་མ།
- ḍākinī
A class of female deities; a class of female nonhuman beings.
Daṇḍa
- dbyug gu
- དབྱུག་གུ
- daṇḍa
A staff; punishment; the duration of a single breath (from the moment of inhalation until the moment of the next inhalation).
Date tree
- khardzu ra
- ཁརྫུ་ར།
- kharjura
- kharjūra
Phoenix sylvestre Roxb.
Dedicate the merit
- bsngo ba
- བསྔོ་བ།
- pariṇāma
Transformation; in the context of a sādhana, this is the dedication of merit.
Dhak
- pa lA sha
- པ་ལཱ་ཤ།
- palāśa
- palāśaka
- kiṃśuka
Butea monosperma, Butea frondosa.
Dhāraṇī
- gzungs
- གཟུངས།
- dhāraṇī
A magical formula invoking a particular deity for a particular purpose; dhāraṇīs are longer than most mantras, and their application is more specialized.
Dharmakāya
- chos kyi sku
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྐུ།
- dharmakāya
The “body of phenomena,” one of the three (sometimes four) bodies of the Buddha.
Doob grass
- dUr ba
- དཱུར་བ།
- dūrvā
- dūrva
Cynodon dactylon.
Downy datura
- dhu tu ra
- དྷུ་ཏུ་ར།
- dhustura
- dhustūra
- dhattūra
- kanaka
- unmattaka
Datura metel.
Driving away
- skrod pa
- སྐྲོད་པ།
- uccāṭana
A type of magical activity aiming to render a person homeless, or drive away non-human beings.
Droṇapuṣpaka
- dro na puSh+Ta
- དྲོ་ན་པུཥྚ།
- droṇapuṣpaka
Leucas cephalotes.
Drumstick tree
- sho bha dzna
- ཤོ་བྷ་ཛན།
- śaubhāñjana
Moringa oleifera.
Dry ginger
- sga
- bca’ sga
- sga skya
- སྒ།
- བཅའ་སྒ།
- སྒ་སྐྱ།
- śuṇṭhī
- śuṇṭhi
Zingiber officinale.
Dūta
- pho nya
- ཕོ་ཉ།
- dūta
A class of nonhuman beings; the name literally means “messenger,” which could imply that these beings can be employed as messengers through magical rites.
Dwarf morning glory
- biSh+Nu krAn+ta
- བིཥྞུ་ཀྲཱནྟ།
- viṣṇukrāntā
Evolvulus alsinoides.
Earthworm
- bhu la ta
- བྷུ་ལ་ཏ།
- bhūmilatā
Effigy
- gzugs brnyan
- གཟུགས་བརྙན།
- puttalikā
An effigy used in sympathetic magic.
Egg-of-Brahmā
- tshangs pa’i sgo nga
- ཚངས་པའི་སྒོ་ང།
- brahmāṇḍa
Metaphor, from the Purāṇas, for the world or universe.
Elephant wood-apple
- ka pi t+tha
- ཀ་པི་ཏྠ།
- kapittha
Limonia elephantianum (Correa), Feronia limonia (Linn).
Emblic myrobalan
- skyu ru ra
- སྐྱུ་རུ་ར།
- āmalakī
Phyllanthus emblica.
Enriching
- rgyas pa
- རྒྱས་པ།
- puṣṭi
- poṣaṇa
- pauṣṭika
One of the four main types of enlightened activity.
Enthralling
- dbang ba
- དབང་བ།
- vaśya
- vaśa
- vaśīkaraṇa
One of the four main types of enlightened activity.
Enthrallment
- dbang ba
- དབང་བ།
- vaśya
- vaśa
- vaśīkaraṇa
One of the four main types of enlightened activity.
False black pepper
- byi tang ka
- bi DaM ga
- བྱི་ཏང་ཀ
- བི་ཌཾ་ག
- viḍaṅga
Embelia ribes, or Embelia tsjeriam-cottam.
False daisy
- b+hr-ing ga rA dza
- བྷྲྀང་ག་རཱ་ཛ།
- bhṛṅgarāja
Eclipta prostrata.
Fast
- gso sbyong
- གསོ་སྦྱོང་།
- poṣadha
A ritual observance involving fasting.
Female hell-being
- dmyal ba mo
- དམྱལ་བ་མོ།
- nārakī
Female hungry ghost
- yi dwags mo
- ཡི་དྭགས་མོ།
- pretikā
Fierce Great Anger
- tsaN+De mahA kro d+ha
- ཙཎྜེ་མཧཱ་ཀྲོ་དྷ།
- Caṇḍamahākrodha
This seems to be an epithet of Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa.
Firefly
- srin bu me khyer
- སྲིན་བུ་མེ་ཁྱེར།
- khajyotis
- khadyota
First day of the bright fortnight
- dkar po’i tshes gcig
- དཀར་པོའི་ཚེས་གཅིག
- śuklapratipad
First day of the dark fortnight
- nag po’i tshes gcig
- ནག་པོའི་ཚེས་གཅིག
- kṛṣṇapratipad
Five aggregates
- phung po lnga
- ཕུང་པོ་ལྔ།
- pañcaskandha
The five “aggregates” comprising a living being.
Five buddhas
- sangs rgyas lnga
- སངས་རྒྱས་ལྔ།
- pañcabuddha
The five, in the CMT system, are Akṣobhya (in the centre), Vairocana (in the east), Ratnasambhava (in the south), Amitābha (in the west), and Amoghasiddhi (in the north).
Five disciplines
- bslab pa lnga
- བསླབ་པ་ལྔ།
- pañcaśikṣā
Five empowerments
- dbang lnga
- དབང་ལྔ།
- pañcābhiṣeka
Five impurities
- dri ma lnga
- དྲི་མ་ལྔ།
- pañcamala
Five inexpiable actions
- mtshams med lnga
- མཚམས་མེད་ལྔ།
- pañcānantaryakṛta
Five pledges
- dam tshig lnga
- དམ་ཚིག་ལྔ།
- pañcasamaya
Five products of a cow
- ba’i rnam pa lnga
- བའི་རྣམ་པ་ལྔ།
- pañcagavya
Milk, curds, butter, urine and dung.
Five sense objects
- ’dod yon lnga
- འདོད་ཡོན་ལྔ།
- pañcakāma
Five superknowledges
- mngon shes lnga
- མངོན་ཤེས་ལྔ།
- pañcābhijñā
Flea tree
- sha ri sa
- ཤ་རི་ས།
- śirīṣa
Albizzia lebbeck Benth. (Acacia Sirissa.)
Fortnight
- phyogs
- ཕྱོགས།
- pakṣa
Four concentrations
- bsam gtan bzhi
- བསམ་གཏན་བཞི།
- caturdhyāna
Four gazes
- lta stang bzhi
- ལྟ་སྟང་བཞི།
- caturdṛṣṭi
Four gazes employed for the four activities: enthralling, summoning, killing, and paralyzing.
Four immeasurable states
- tshad med pa’i gnas gzhi
- ཚད་མེད་པའི་གནས་གཞི།
- caturbrahmavihāra
Immeasurable loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and impartiality.
Four joys
- dga’ bzhi
- dga’ ba bzhi
- དགའ་བཞི།
- དགའ་བ་བཞི།
- caturānandāḥ
The four types of bliss arising during sexual intercourse, the full understanding of which leads to liberation.
Four truths
- bden pa bzhi
- བདེན་པ་བཞི།
- catuḥsatya
The four Noble Truths as taught by the Buddha, i.e. the truth of suffering, and so forth.
Free from mental elaboration
- sprod pa med pa
- སྤྲོད་པ་མེད་པ།
- niṣprapañca
Free from concepts or mental fabrications.
Fresh ginger
- sge gsher
- སྒེ་གཤེར།
- ārdraka
Zingiber officinale
Gajapippalī
- glang chen pi pi ling
- གླང་ཆེན་པི་པི་ལིང་།
- gajapippalī
- hastipippalī
Scindapsis officinalis.
Gamboge
- sa skyur mo
- ས་སྐྱུར་མོ།
- kāṅguṣṭha
- kāṅkuṣṭha
The solidified resin of Garcinia morella.
Gaṇacakra feast
- tshogs kyi ’khor lo
- ཚོགས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ།
- gaṇacakra
A ritual feast for different classes of nonhuman beings.
Gaṇapati
- tshogs bdag
- ཚོགས་བདག
- Gaṇapati
One of the Hindu gods, often identified with Gaṇeśa.
Gandharva
- dri za
- དྲི་ཟ།
- gandharva
A class of semidivine beings sometimes referred to as heavenly musicians.
Garland mantra
- phreng ba’i sngags
- ཕྲེང་བའི་སྔགས།
- mālāmantra
A mantra that surrounds the central item in a diagram or magical drawing.
Garuḍa
- ’khyung
- འཁྱུང་།
- garuḍa
A class of semi-divine bird-like beings.
Gaurī
- gau rI
- གཽ་རཱི།
- Gaurī
Giant milkweed
- ar ka
- ཨར་ཀ
- arka
Calotropis gigantea.
Goddess of the Vajra Realm
- rdo rje dbyings kyi dbang phyug ma
- རྡོ་རྗེ་དབྱིངས་ཀྱི་དབང་ཕྱུག་མ།
- Vajradhātvīśvarī
Consort of Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa. See also “Vajra realm.”
Gopā
- go pA
- གོ་པཱ།
- Gopā
The name of Buddha’s wife as found in some texts, including the Lalitavistara; the name of Buddha’s tantric consort.
Graha
- gza’
- གཟའ།
- graha
Eclipse; a class of spirits causing possession.
Great Strength
- stobs po che
- སྟོབས་པོ་ཆེ།
- Mahābala
Great Vajra of Poison
- ma hA bi Sha badz+ra
- མ་ཧཱ་བི་ཥ་བཛྲ།
- Mahāviṣavajra
Green Acala
- mi g.yo ba ljang gu
- མི་གཡོ་བ་ལྗང་གུ
- Śyāmācala
Acala corresponding to Buddha Amoghasiddhi in the north of the maṇḍala.
Halāhala
- ha la ha la
- ཧ་ལ་ཧ་ལ།
- halāhala
A species of snake, or the poison from this snake.
Hārītī
- ’phrog ma
- འཕྲོག་མ།
- Hārītī
A yakṣiṇī; after conversion to Buddhadharma she became the protectress of children.
Hasta
- lag pa
- ལག་པ།
- hasta
Hand (body part); cubit (unit of length); the eleventh (sometimes thirteenth) lunar asterism.
Hatriṇī
- hA Di
- ཧཱ་ཌི།
- hatriṇī
Heart mantra
- snying po’i sngags
- སྙིང་པོའི་སྔགས།
- hṛdayamantra
Hell being
- dmyal ba pa
- དམྱལ་བ་པ།
- nāraka
Hogweed
- pu nar pa
- པུ་ནར་པ།
- punarnava
Boerhaavia diffusa.
Hungry ghost
- yi dwags
- ཡི་དྭགས།
- preta
A class of beings suffering interminable hunger and thirst.
Immovable
- mi g.yo ba
- མི་གཡོ་བ།
- acalā
The eighth bodhisattva level; see also Acala (the masculine form), another name of the deity Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa.
Impatient One
- a sa ha
- ཨ་ས་ཧ།
- Asaha
Incant
- mngon par bsngags
- མངོན་པར་བསྔགས།
- abhimantr
- parijap
To imbue something with power by reciting the mantra over it.
Indian bowstring hemp
- nA ga da ma na ka
- ནཱ་ག་ད་མ་ན་ཀ
- nāgadamana
Sansevieria roxburghiana.
Indian heliotrope
- ha sti shuN+Ti
- ཧ་སྟི་ཤུཎྚི།
- hastiśuṇḍī
Heliotropium indicum (?)
Indian heliotrope
- sgog skya
- སྒོག་སྐྱ།
- śuṇḍī
Heliotropium indicum.
Indian licorice
- g+huny+dza
- གྷུཉྫ།
- guñjā
- guñja
Abrus precatorius.
Indian mallow
- a ti ba la
- ཨ་ཏི་བ་ལ།
- atibalā
Abutilon indicum.
Indian oleander
- ka ra bI ra
- ཀ་ར་བཱི་ར།
- karavīra
Nerium indicum.
Indian pennywort
- tshangs ma
- ཚངས་མ།
- brahmī
- brāhmī
Bacopa monnieri.
Indian sesbania
- dza yan ti
- ཛ་ཡན་ཏི།
- jayantī
Sesbania sesban.
Indian spikenard
- spang spos
- སྤང་སྤོས།
- māṃsī
- jaṭāmāṃsī
Nardostachys jatamansi, Nardostachys grandiflora.
Indian stinging nettle
- za’i lo ma
- ཟའི་ལོ་མ།
- vṛścikapattrikā
- vṛścikapātrikā
Traquia involucrata.
Indian valerian
- puN+Da ta ga ra
- པུཎྜ་ཏ་ག་ར།
- piṇḍatagara
Valeriana wallichii (more likely), Tabernaemontana crispa (less likely).
Indigo plant
- rams
- རམས།
- nīlī
- nalikā
Indigofera tinctoria.
Indra
- brgya byin
- བརྒྱ་བྱིན།
- Indra
One of the principal Hindu gods, the leader of the gods of the realm of Thirty-Three.
Infusion
- thang
- ཐང་།
- kvātha
Innate joy
- lhan cig skyes pa’i dga’ ba
- ལྷན་ཅིག་སྐྱེས་པའི་དགའ་བ།
- sahajānanda
Although referred to as the “fourth” in the fourfold division of the joys, the innate joy does not fit into a sequential order in quite the same way as the other three joys. It is first discerned when the supreme joy gives way to the joy of cessation, and is gradually extended through practice until it becomes ever present.
Inverted conduct
- sdom pa phyin ci log pa
- སྡོམ་པ་ཕྱིན་ཅི་ལོག་པ།
- viparītasaṃvara
Refers to unconventional practices of a tantric yogin.
Ivory tree
- cang skyer
- dug mo nyung
- ཅང་སྐྱེར།
- དུག་མོ་ཉུང་།
- kuṭaja
Holarrhena pubescens.
Jambhala
- dzam bha la
- ཛམ་བྷ་ལ།
- Jambhala
God of wealth.
Jasmine
- dza tI
- ཛ་ཏཱི།
- jātī
Jasminum grandiflorum.
Jujube
- rag chung
- རག་ཆུང་།
- badara
Kāmeśvarī
- ’dod pa’i dbang phyug ma
- འདོད་པའི་དབང་ཕྱུག་མ།
- Kāmeśvarī
Kañcanamālā
- dbang phreng ma
- དབང་ཕྲེང་མ།
- Kañcanamālā
Kāpālika
- thod pa can
- ཐོད་པ་ཅན།
- kāpālika
A class of wandering ascetics.
Karṣa
- zho
- ཞོ།
- karṣa
A unit of weight equal to 280 grains troy, or sometimes 176 grains troy.
Kartri knife
- gri gug
- གྲི་གུག
- kartri
A ritual knife meant for flaying skin.
Ketu
- du ba
- དུ་བ།
- Ketu
A comet or a falling star personified.
Khaskhas grass
- u shi ra
- ཨུ་ཤི་ར།
- uśīra
Vetiveris zizanioides.
Kidney bean
- sran ma
- སྲན་མ།
- māṣa
Phaseolus mungo, Vigna mungo.
Killing
- gsad pa
- གསད་པ།
- māraṇa
One of the four main types of enlightened activity.
Kiṃnara
- mi ’am ci
- མི་འམ་ཅི།
- kiṃnara
A class of semidivine beings known for their musical skills, depicted as half-horse and half-human, or half-bird and half-human.
Kriyātantra
- bya rgyud
- བྱ་རྒྱུད།
- kriyātantra
The first class of tantra in most systems of tantra classification (the other classes being, in the fivefold classification, Caryātantra, Yogatantra, Yogottaratantra, and Yoganiruttaratantra).
Kubera
- lus ngan
- ལུས་ངན།
- Kubera
The god of wealth.
Kumbhaka
- kum bha ka
- bum pa can
- ཀུམ་བྷ་ཀ
- བུམ་པ་ཅན།
- kumbhaka
Inhalation (one of the four stages during a single breath).
Kumbhāṇḍa
- grul bum
- གྲུལ་བུམ།
- kumbhāṇḍa
A class of nonhuman beings.
Kuṇḍalahāriṇī
- kuN+Da la ha ri NI
- ཀུཎྜ་ལ་ཧ་རི་ཎཱི།
- Kuṇḍalahāriṇī
Kuṇṭḥīrā
- kun thir
- ཀུན་ཐིར།
- kuṇṭḥīrā
Kurukullā
- ku ru ku l+lA
- ཀུ་རུ་ཀུ་ལླཱ།
- Kurukullā
The Buddhist goddess of enthrallment related to or emanating from Tārā.
Lac
- rgya skyegs
- རྒྱ་སྐྱེགས།
- lākṣā
Lakṣmī
- dpal mo
- དཔལ་མོ།
- Lakṣmī
The Hindu goddess of prosperity.
Large eggplant
- bri ha ti
- བྲི་ཧ་ཏི།
- bṛhatī
Solanum indicum.
Leadwort
- ci tra ka
- ཅི་ཏྲ་ཀ
- citraka
Plumbago zeylanica.
Locanā
- spyan ma
- སྤྱན་མ།
- Locanā
A female deity in one of the variants of the maṇḍala of Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa; also the name of the consort of Ratnasambhava.
Locust
- cha ga ba
- ཆ་ག་བ།
- śalaṃga
Long pepper
- pi pi ling
- པི་པི་ལིང་།
- pippalī
Piper longum.
Loofah
- gho Sha
- གྷོ་ཥ།
- ghoṣaka
Luffa aegyptiaca.
Lotus
- pad+ma
- པདྨ།
- padma
The lotus flower or plant; euphemistic name for the female genital organ.
Mahāmudra
- phyag rgya chen po
- ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ།
- mahāmudra
A very advanced practice that combines wisdom and means.
Māhilla
- maha’i NaM
- མཧའི་ཎཾ།
- Māhilla
A vetāla in one of the variants of the maṇḍala of Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa.
Mahoraga
- lto ’phye chen po
- ལྟོ་འཕྱེ་ཆེན་པོ།
- mahoraga
A class of nonhuman beings.
Maitreyasiṃhalocanī
- mai tre ya siM ha lo tsa ne
- མཻ་ཏྲེ་ཡ་སིཾ་ཧ་ལོ་ཙ་ནེ།
- Maitreyasiṃhalocanī
A goddess invoked in a mantra to cure blindness.
Malabar nut
- bA sha ka
- བཱ་ཤ་ཀ
- vāsaka
- vāsā
Justicia adhatoda.
Maṇḍala of powders
- rdul tshon dkyil ’khor
- རྡུལ་ཚོན་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར།
- rajomaṇḍala
A maṇḍala created with colored powders.
Mango
- amra
- ཨམྲ།
- sahakāra
- āmra
Mangifera indica
Maṇibhadra
- nor bu bzang po
- ནོར་བུ་བཟང་པོ།
- Maṇibhadra
God of wealth.
Mañjuśrī
- ’jam dpal
- འཇམ་དཔལ།
- Mañjuśrī
The deified bodhisattva of wisdom; one of the original sixteen bodhisattvas.
Mantrayāna
- sngags kyi theg pa
- སྔགས་ཀྱི་ཐེག་པ།
- mantrayāna
The “Mantra Vehicle,” which is another name for Vajrayāna.
Māra
- bdud
- བདུད།
- Māra
An obstacle maker; a personification of evil.
Mardala drum
- rnga bo che
- རྔ་བོ་ཆེ།
- mardala
Marking nut
- bhalla ta ka
- བྷལླ་ཏ་ཀ
- bhallātaka
Semecarpus anacardium.
Marsh barbel
- ko ki lA kya
- ཀོ་ཀི་ལཱ་ཀྱ།
- kokilākṣa
- kokilākhya
Hygrophila auriculata.
Māṣa
- ma Sha
- མ་ཥ།
- māṣa
A unit of weight equal to 17 grains troy.
Māṣa pulses
- ma Sa
- མ་Sཨ།
- māṣa
Phaseolus radiatus.
Māṣaka
- drug nam
- དྲུག་ནམ།
- māṣaka
A unit of weight equal to 26 grains of rice.
Māyādevī
- lha mo sgyu ’phrul
- ལྷ་མོ་སྒྱུ་འཕྲུལ།
- Māyādevī
Buddha’s mother.
Mental construct
- rnam par rtog pa
- རྣམ་པར་རྟོག་པ།
- saṃkalpa
Any type of dualistic concept or idea.
Midnight horror
- sho na ka
- ཤོ་ན་ཀ
- śyonāka
Oroxylum indicum.
Molasses
- la si kaM
- ལ་སི་ཀཾ།
- rasikā
Moon
- ri bong can
- zla ba
- རི་བོང་ཅན།
- ཟླ་བ།
- śaśin
- candra
Moonseed
- sle tres
- སླེ་ཏྲེས།
- guḍūcī
Tinaspora cordifolia.
Moth
- phye ma leb
- ཕྱེ་མ་ལེབ།
- pataṃga
Mudrā
- phyag rgya
- ཕྱག་རྒྱ།
- mudrā
A position of hands, also the “source” deity visualized at the top of the head.
Mūla
- rtsa ba
- རྩ་བ།
- mūla
The root (literally and figuratively); also the seventeenth (sometimes the nineteenth) lunar asterism.
Muṇḍirī
- muN+Da rI
- མུཎྜ་རཱི།
- muṇḍirī
- muṇḍīrī
Not identified, but perhaps Nardostachys jatamansi (?).
Musk
- gla ba
- གླ་བ།
- kastūrī
Mustard
- ske tshe
- སྐེ་ཚེ།
- rājikā
- sarṣapa
Brassica juncea.
Mustard
- yungs kar
- ཡུངས་ཀར།
- sarṣapa
This plant has several edible varieties.
Nāga
- klu
- ཀླུ།
- nāga
A class of nonhuman beings, half-human and half-snake.
Nāgakesara
- nA ga ge sa ra
- ནཱ་ག་གེ་ས་ར།
- nāgakesara
- nāgakeśara
- nāgeśvara
Mesua ferrea; cobra’s saffron.
Nairañjanā
- nai rany+dza nA
- ནཻ་རཉྫ་ནཱ།
- Nairañjanā
The river where the Buddha used to meditate.
Naravīrā
- na ra d+hi ra
- ན་ར་དྷི་ར།
- Naravīrā
Naṭṭā
- gar ma
- གར་མ།
- Naṭṭā
Negro coffee
- kA sha mar d+ha
- ཀཱ་ཤ་མར་དྷ།
- kāsamarda
- kāsamardaka
Cassia occidentalis.
Nerve of Vajradhātvīśvarī
- rdo rje dbying kyi dbang phyug ma’i rtsa
- རྡོ་རྗེ་དབྱིང་ཀྱི་དབང་ཕྱུག་མའི་རྩ།
- vajradhātvīśvarīnāḍī
The most sensitive spot of the woman’s genitals.
Nimb tree
- nim ba
- ནིམ་བ།
- nimba
Azadirachta indica.
Nine sections of scripture
- gsung rab yan lag dgu
- གསུང་རབ་ཡན་ལག་དགུ
- navāṅgapravacana
Nirmāṇakāya
- sprul pa’i sku
- སྤྲུལ་པའི་སྐུ།
- nirmāṇakāya
The “body of transformation,” one of the three (sometimes four) bodies of the Buddha.
Noble eightfold path
- ’phags pa’i lam yan lag brgyad
- འཕགས་པའི་ལམ་ཡན་ལག་བརྒྱད།
- āryāṣṭāṅgamārga
Nut grass
- mon lug
- མོན་ལུག
- mustaka
Cyperus rotundus.
Oleogum resin
- spos dkar
- སྤོས་དཀར།
- sarjarasa
Vateria indica.
One-pointed mind
- yid rtse gcig
- ཡིད་རྩེ་གཅིག
- ekāgracitta
The mind focused one-pointedly.
Oṣaṇī
- do Sha Ni
- oM Sha Ni
- དོ་ཥ་ཎི།
- ཨོཾ་ཥ་ཎི།
- oṣaṇī
This has not been identified.
Ox horn
- glang gi rwa
- གླང་གི་རྭ།
- balīvardhaśṛṅga
Pacifying
- zhi ba
- ཞི་བ།
- śānti
- śāntika
Peace; one of the four main types of enlightened activity.
Padminī
- pad+ma can
- པདྨ་ཅན།
- Padminī
Pala
- srang
- སྲང་།
- pala
As a unit of weight, it equals four karṣa; as a unit of capacity, it equals about seven cubic inches, but this may vary from source to source.
Panicled foldwing
- kA ka ji gha
- ཀཱ་ཀ་ཇི་གྷ།
- kākajaṅghā
Dicliptera paniculata .
Parṇaśāvarī
- lha mo par+Na sha ba ri
- ལྷ་མོ་པརྞ་ཤ་བ་རི།
- Parṇaśāvarī
A female deity in a variant of the maṇḍala of Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa.
Paṭaha drum
- rnga pa Ta ha
- རྔ་པ་ཊ་ཧ།
- paṭaha
Paṭṭikā
- snam bu
- སྣམ་བུ།
- paṭṭikā
Curtains of pearl necklaces suspended from the walls of the inner rectangle of the maṇḍala.
Penis
- ling ga
- rdo rje
- ལིང་ག
- རྡོ་རྗེ།
- liṅga
- vajra
Liṅga and vajra have many other meanings (too many to list here).
Perfection of Wisdom
- shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin ma
- ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་མ།
- Prajñāpāramitā
The perfection of wisdom personified.
Perfumed cherry
- pri yang ku
- པྲི་ཡང་ཀུ
- priyaṅgu
Callicarpa macrophylla.
Pigeon’s droppings
- phug ron
- ཕུག་རོན།
- pārāvataviṣṭhā
Pigment of bovine gallstones
- gi wang
- གི་ཝང་།
- gorocanā
Pīlupāla
- pI lu pa la
- པཱི་ལུ་པ་ལ།
- Pīlupāla
Piśāca
- sha za
- ཤ་ཟ།
- piśāca
A class of spirits.
Placenta
- skyes pa’i mal stan
- སྐྱེས་པའི་མལ་སྟན།
- garbhaśayyā
Pongam oil tree
- ’jam ’bras
- འཇམ་འབྲས།
- karañja
Pongamia pinnata.
Portico
- sgo khyud
- སྒོ་ཁྱུད།
- niryūha
Potash
- k+Sha ra
- ཀྵ་ར།
- kṣara
Prāṇa
- srog rlung
- སྲོག་རླུང་།
- prāṇa
Vital air in general, and also the vital air (one of the five) centered around the heart.
Pratyekabuddha
- rang sangs rgyas
- རང་སངས་རྒྱས།
- pratyekabuddha
“Solitary buddha,” so called because he attains nirvāṇa on his own.
Pravāla fish
- bra bA la’i nya
- བྲ་བཱ་ལའི་ཉ།
- pravāla
Preliminary practice
- sngon du bsnyen pa
- སྔོན་དུ་བསྙེན་པ།
- pūrvasevā
A period of formal practice, usually lasting six months, before the practitioner can employ the mantra for specific purposes.
Pūjā
- mchod pa
- མཆོད་པ།
- pūjā
Worship that involves making offerings.
Pūraka
- pU ra ka
- པཱུ་ར་ཀ
- pūraka
Retention of breath after inhalation (one of the four stages during a single breath).
Purities
- rnam par dag pa
- རྣམ་པར་དག་པ།
- viśuddhi
The pure category, usually beyond the mundane, represented by any ritual implement, iconographic feature, or any other tangible element of worship.
Pūrṇabhadra
- gang ba bzang po
- གང་བ་བཟང་པོ།
- Pūrṇabhadra
God of wealth.
Purslane
- lo Ni ya
- ལོ་ཎི་ཡ།
- loṇikā
- loṇiya
Portulaca oleracea, Portulaca quadrifida.
Puṣya
- rgyal
- རྒྱལ།
- puṣya
The sixth (sometimes the eighth) lunar asterism.
Quicksilver
- mngul chu
- མངུལ་ཆུ།
- pārada
- rasa
- sūta
Rāhu
- sgra gcan
- སྒྲ་གཅན།
- Rāhu
The demon who causes an eclipse.
Rainbow
- dbang po’i gzhu
- དབང་པོའི་གཞུ།
- śakracāpa, etc.
Rajobhuva
- rdul tshon sa
- རྡུལ་ཚོན་ས།
- rajobhuva
A particular part of the maṇḍala (?); the Tibetan reads “sand-colored ground”.
Rākṣasa
- srin po
- སྲིན་པོ།
- rākṣasa
A class of demons.
Rāmadūtī
- rA ma du ti
- རཱ་མ་དུ་ཏི།
- rāmadūtī
This has not been identified.
Raṇḍa
- raN+Da
- རཎྜ།
- raṇḍa
This term can be a name of various plants.
Ratī
- dga’ ma
- དགའ་མ།
- Ratī
Ratipriyā
- dga’ ma dang yid ’ong ma
- དགའ་མ་དང་ཡིད་འོང་མ།
- Ratipriyā
In the Tibetan, divided into two characters, “Rati” and “Priyā.”
Raurava Hell
- mgu ’bod
- མགུ་འབོད།
- Raurava
Realgar
- ldong ros
- ལྡོང་རོས།
- manaḥśilā
Recaka
- re tsa ka
- རེ་ཙ་ཀ
- recaka
Exhalation (one of the four stages during a single breath).
Red leadwort
- ci tra dmar po
- ཅི་ཏྲ་དམར་པོ།
- raktacitraka
- raktacitra
Plumbago rosea.
Revatī
- re ba tI
- རེ་བ་ཏཱི།
- Revatī
Ṛṇṭaka
- dheN+Du ka
- དྷེཎྜུ་ཀ
- ṛṇṭaka (?)
Root mantra
- rtsa ba’i sngags
- རྩ་བའི་སྔགས།
- mūlamantra
Rurucaṇḍaruk
- ru ru caN+Da ru ka
- རུ་རུ་ཅཎྜ་རུ་ཀ
- Rurucaṇḍaruk
Rust of iron
- ljags kyi phye ma
- ལྗགས་ཀྱི་ཕྱེ་མ།
- lohacūrṇa
Sādhana
- sgrub thabs
- སྒྲུབ་ཐབས།
- sādhana
Practice involving mantra and visualization.
Safflower
- le brgan rtsi
- ལེ་བརྒན་རྩི།
- kusumbha
Carthamus tinctorius.
Samāna
- mnyam gnas
- མཉམ་གནས།
- samāna
One of the five vital airs, centered in the navel area.
Samantabhadra
- kun tu bzang po
- ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོ།
- Samantabhadra
A Buddhist deity; the name of a bodhisattva; also the name of the deity asking Vajrasattva questions at the time of the delivery of the CMT.
Samaya
- dam tshig
- དམ་ཚིག
- samaya
The bond with the master, deity, and the mantra, based on the pledge or commitment made during an empowerment.
Saṃbhogakāya
- longs sbyod rdzogs pa’i sku
- ལོངས་སྦྱོད་རྫོགས་པའི་སྐུ།
- saṃbhogakāya
The “body of bliss,” one of the three (sometimes four) bodies of the Buddha.
Śaṃkāriṇī
- shaM kA ri NI
- ཤཾ་ཀཱ་རི་ཎཱི།
- Śaṃkāriṇī
A goddess invoked to counter the effects of poison.
Saṃkrānti
- ’pho ba
- འཕོ་བ།
- saṃkrānti
Unit of time related to the counting of breath.
Saphara fish
- saM pha ra
- སཾ་ཕ་ར།
- saphara
Sarasvatī
- dbyangs can ma
- དབྱངས་ཅན་མ།
- Sarasvatī
Goddess of learning; she is visualized as part of the Perfection of Wisdom practice.
Śaśidevī
- zla ba’i lha mo
- ཟླ་བའི་ལྷ་མོ།
- Śaśidevī
Sattvaparyaṅka posture
- sems dpa’i dkyil krung
- སེམས་དཔའི་དཀྱིལ་ཀྲུང་།
- sattvaparyaṅka
Sitting posture when the right shank is placed on top of the left shank; there is also a standing version of this posture.
Sea salt
- rgyam tshwa
- རྒྱམ་ཚྭ།
- saindhava
Seal
- rgyas btab
- རྒྱས་བཏབ།
- mudrita
Having a particular deity at the top of one’s head.
Seed
- sa bon
- ས་བོན།
- bīja
Seed of a plant; the syllable from which a deity manifests.
Semen
- shu kra
- khu ba
- ཤུ་ཀྲ།
- ཁུ་བ།
- śukra
The word śukra may also refer to the female sexual fluid.